


a friend, a criminal

by eonflute



Category: Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson, Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Book 03: Oathbringer Spoilers, F/M, Flirting, they’re literally just talking but you know they’re flirting, unfortunate dramatic irony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 06:55:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22151902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eonflute/pseuds/eonflute
Summary: Vivenna and Vasher are on a journey together, and sometimes journeys mean talking about your best friend’s deeply unfortunate love life.And maybe a bit of ironic planning for the future.
Relationships: Vasher | Zahel/Vivenna | Azure
Comments: 10
Kudos: 34





	a friend, a criminal

“Hey, Vasher.”

He lifts his head slowly.

“You were in...a relationship, way back when, if I’m remembering right,” Vivenna says. She keeps it nonchalant. “With another one of the Scholars.”

“Shashara,” he says quietly. “Denth’s sister.”

“Right. Her.” She pokes a stick at their fire. They’re far between towns tonight, so no inn rooms for them; she’s become far more used to camping over the course of their travels, and it’s leagues better than sleeping in the Idrian slums of T’Telir, thank Austre.

“And you’re asking because...”

Vivenna shrugs at him. “I was curious. If you’ve ever really tried anything since then, or something.”

Vasher lets out one of his characteristic, world-weary sighs, the kind that reminds Vivenna just how many hundreds of years old he is.

“I...no, I haven’t. I don’t see why this sort of topic would interest you,  _Princess._ ”

“Former princess, thank you very much.” Vivenna punctuates this by throwing her stick at him, which he bats away easily. “And I’m not interested in  _your_ love life, anyways. I just wonder—I’m not sure how to go about things anymore, when it comes to that. I spent my whole life thinking I’d marry the God King—Susebron—whatever, that I’d end up in a political marriage.”

She pushes her hair out of her eyes; her locks are starting to fade to a weary brown with the topic, but she doesn’t let that deter her.

“Well, your sister didn’t let the politics stop her from teaching the man everything he needed to know about—”

“ _Vasher_! ” she snaps, though a grin breaks out on her face. “I can’t believe I willingly tolerate your company sometimes.”

“Don’t let me stop you from getting to your point, of course,” he says. The firelight sets his scruffy face in a sharp way as he turns to face her more fully, wearing a light smirk of his own.

“You’re insufferable,” she snorts at him. Then her mind drifts back to her original point, and she lets out a sigh of her own. “The God King was one thing—and when Siri went off to marry him I thought, surely, that my father would want me to marry Parlin instead. And then I walked him right to his grave.”

“Sounds to me like you have a penchant for ending relationships before they begin,” Vasher murmurs.

The thought of Parlin still leaves an ache in Vivenna’s chest, but she finds it doesn’t worseneven when Vasher speaks so bluntly about it. Although that might speak more for how used to him she’s grown, and less for how much she’s recovered since Hallandren.

“I guess,” she concedes. “But you’ve really never tried to move on in, what, five hundred years? If that’s true, you don’t get to snark at me anymore about this.”

He grunts. “Got me. I’m sure you’ll find yourself moving on much faster than I ever could.”

“Well, one relationship in nearly six centuries is still more than none in just over twenty. Though I have a chance to best that easily.” Vivenna pulls herself closer to the fire, quieting for a moment. Then she gives Vasher a mischievous smile.

“Or, tell you what. Do you know exactly how old you are?”

“Viv, do you really think I’ve counted every year I’ve been alive? If historians can’t get my age right, how can I?”

“Historians thought Kalad the Usurper and Peacegiver the Blessed were two different people, Vasher.”

“Hm.” He rests a cheek in one hand. “So they did. But no, I don’t. It’s near six hundred now, and that’s my best guess.”

“Alright.” Vivenna studies his face; even after mentioning Shashara, his grumpiness doesn’t seem any worse than normal. It should be safe to continue lightly prodding and joking. “Then, let’s see—if I get to be thirty, and you get to be just about six hundred, and neither of us has made any progress, we could—“

_Duel to the death?_

“Nightblood, no,” Vivenna says. “I’m not trying to kill my traveling partner.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Vasher says, “with some of the stunts you pull day to day.”

_Hunt each other for sport, then?_

“I thought you liked us, Nightblood.” Vivenna gives the sword a sharp look; she feels sort of stupid in doing it, because he doesn’t have eyes, but it still gives her a small sense of authority. Like scolding a belligerent child or something. Oh, for Austre’s love, is she becoming  _parental_?

_I do like you guys!_ Nightblood tells them.  _But you haven’t been drawing me. That could change if you fight each other._

“I...Nightblood, that’s not really...” Vivenna pauses for a moment. “I was going to ask if Vasher would think about going off somewhere much farther away together. If we still don’t have anything tying us down at that point. Escape things for a while.”

“We’re already escaping just about everything,” Vasher says. “But if you want to get farther away, we don’t have to wait until you’re single and thirty, you know. Once we wrap things up on this continent, we can get off Nalthis altogether.”

“With your fancy Returned magic? I like the sound of it,” Vivenna says.

“Then it’s a plan.” Vasher gives her another smile. So rare, those smiles of his, in all his gruff temperament, and here she’s already gotten a handful of them in one night.

“It’s a plan,” she agrees.

✩

The Horneater Peaks are rocky and rough, and a chill wind blows over them. Clouds mount far in the east—a highstorm approaches.

“Thirty’s come and gone, Vasher,” Azure murmurs, gazing out at the horizon. “But I suppose we did end up getting off Nalthis, after all. And I’m sure you haven’t done anything about your own situation in the meantime.”

She rests a hand on the hilt of her sword.

“I wish Nightblood hadn’t seen the leaves quite so well for their green, though.”

Nonetheless; Highmarshal Azure, runaway princess of Idris, hunter of two criminals from Nalthis, knows what she must do.

_I’m coming for you, Vasher. I wish it could have been as friends._

She begins to descend the peaks.

**Author's Note:**

> true love is hunting your criminal maybe-ex for sport
> 
> twitter (join vivasher club today)


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